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HelenAtherton

BSc, MSc, MPH, PhD

Honorary Postdoctoral Researcher

Assistant Professor of Primary Care at University of Warwick

Member of SAPC Executive Committee

I am a health services researcher and my research interests are in eHealth and research methodology. I am currently working on projects relating to email for communication between doctors and their patients. This is important because information and communications technologies are now a routine part of everyday life, but their utilisation in healthcare settings is much less common. This is despite the will of policymakers to increase email use in healthcare. I am also involved in emerging work around the utilisation of online patient experience data for improving health service delivery. Patients now routinely leave feedback or stories about their care online, but this material is often overlooked by healthcare providers in favour of formalised feedback. At present we do not know much about who is commenting, why this is and what it could mean for healthcare.

My background is varied; BSc Ecology & MSc Biological Anthropology (University of Durham) and Master of Public Health (Imperial College London). My research experience is in primary care; I previously worked on a community based randomised controlled trial of chlamydia screening for prevention of pelvic infection, and made the move into eHealth before doing my PhD, which I completed in 2012 at Imperial College London.

I am a member of the Executive Committee for the Society of Academic Primary Care (SAPC) and act as early careers lead.